Health Care

Valeant's intrinsic value has collapsed, but what's it worth today? Image source: PRI's Studio 360, republished under CC BY 2.0 .

Is Obamacare in a death spiral? Not so fast.

UnitedHealth Group Inc Chief Executive Officer Steven Hemsley said on Tuesday that the company would largely exit the Obamacare exchange market in 2017, following through on a warning he had given late last year that costs appeared to be unsustainable.

UnitedHealth Group Inc's decision to exit most of its Obamacare health insurance exchanges next year means rivals will need to raise prices further to prop up an unprofitable business, healthcare analysts and policy experts said on Tuesday.

The U.S. will face a physician shortage over the next decade; potentially as many as 90,000 doctors could be needed.

UnitedHealth Group Inc Chief Executive Officer Steven Hemsley said on Tuesday that the company would largely exit the Obamacare exchange market in 2017, following through on a warning he had given late last year that costs appeared to be unsustainable.

Blood-testing firm Theranos Inc confirmed on Monday it is under investigation by federal prosecutors and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Health insurer UnitedHealth Group raised its expectations for 2016 profit, in part because of a more favorable tax rate that also helped it beat Wall Street expectations for the first quarter.

Johnson & Johnson, the maker of Band-Aids and Tylenol, reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings on Tuesday and nudged up its 2016 sales and earnings forecasts.

Image source: Pixabay , public domain For this Fool, the rise and fall of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (NYSE: VRX) is the most fascinating business story of 2015 -- and there are still a few chapters yet to be written.

Image source: Pixabay.

Federal health regulators have proposed banning Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes from the blood-testing business for at least two years after concluding that the company failed to fix what regulators have called major problems at its laboratory in California.